Visiting Salföld near Lake Balaton – and Sour cherry soup!

On our recent holiday near Lake Balaton in Hungary, we ventured away from the lake a little to the picturesque village of Salföld. We found a pretty village restaurant with a large garden called Pajta Galeria, where I had a chance to try some Sour Cherry soup.

I spotted this typically Hungarian soup on the menu along with the more traditional savoury goulash soup and in the spirit of enquiry thought I’d give it a try.

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Why cold soup?

Chilled sweet fruit soups like this are a typical Hungarian dish for the summer months. Although cherry flavour is very popular, the soups can also be made with whatever fruit is in season such as blackcurrants or apricots. Rather than being eaten as a desert, they are normally eaten as a starter before a savoury main course.

I decided to eat my salad first and the soup second. The experience was rather like eating a liquid fruit yoghurt with whole cherries hiding at the bottom of the bowl. Very nice, but a strange sensation if you’re not used to the idea of a soup being cold let alone fruity.

The village of Salföld is well worth a wander round too as it’s on the edge of the Káli Basin. This area of natural beauty is part of the Balaton Uplands National Park.

The charming village of Salföld

At the far end of the village we found Salföld Manor. It’s an old farmstead with traditional buildings made into a small show farm and heritage centre. There’s a herb garden and exhibition of old photos, rare breeds of farm animals to stroke and horse-carriage rides.

This looked like a great place for families with younger children, but we were looking forward to our late lunch and turned back to the restaurant instead of going in.

I suspect that the village has been made into a bit of a showcase. Many of the traditional thatched buildings looked as though they had been renovated over the last 10 years.

Houses had been freshly plastered with whitewashed walls and new thatched roofs. The odd tumble-down cottage in between served to compare what the village was probably like before.

Although we drove to the village, there are some very pretty cycling routes through the vineyards to the village. There’s the reward of a drink and a meal at the Pajta Galeria’s pretty garden at the end.

If you like creamy fruity tastes then do try a cold fruit soup if you see it on the menu in Hungary. The most difficult decision is whether to have it as a starter or a pudding.

More fun in Hungary

Folk art and Paprika – my souvenirs of Budapest
Memento Park – Icon’s of Budapest’s communist past

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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